Related papers: Towards a dynamical mass of the ultraluminous X-ra…
We studied the radio source associated with the ultraluminous X-ray source in NGC 5408 (L_X ~ 10^{40} erg/s). The radio spectrum is steep (index ~ -1), consistent with optically-thin synchrotron emission, not with flat-spectrum core…
We present the analysis of the X-ray variability and spectral timing properties of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5408 X-1, one of the most variable ULXs known so far. The variability properties are used as a diagnostic of the…
High-resolution optical spectra of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5408 X-1 show a broad component with a width of ~750 km/s in the HeII and Hbeta lines in addition to the narrow component observed in these lines and [O III]. Reanalysis…
We present the results from coordinated X-ray observations of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5204 X-1 performed by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton in early 2013. These observations provide the first detection of NGC 5204 X-1 above 10 keV,…
We present new X-ray and UV observations of the Wolf-Rayet + black hole binary system NGC 300 X-1 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. When combined with archival X-ray observations,…
We report on the discovery with Chandra of a strong modulation (~90% pulsed fraction) at ~6.4 h from the source CXOU J123030.3+413853 in the star-forming, low-metallicity spiral galaxy NGC 4490, which is interacting with the irregular…
The notion of source states characterizing the X-ray emission from black hole binaries has revealed to be a very useful tool to disentangle the complex spectral and aperiodic phenomenology displayed by those classes of accreting objects. We…
NGC 5408 X-1 is a well-studied ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) that has been seen to emit in X-rays persistently above the Eddington limit of a stellar-mass black hole for years. In this paper we report on the most extensive X-ray…
We present the preliminary results of two Gemini campaigns to constrain the mass of the black hole in an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) via optical spectroscopy. Pilot studies of the optical counterparts of a number of ULXs revealed two…
We report the detection of a 115 day periodicity in SWIFT/XRT monitoring data from the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 5408 X-1. Our ongoing campaign samples its X-ray flux approximately twice weekly and has now achieved a temporal…
Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are accreting black holes for which their X-ray properties have been seen to be different to the case of stellar-mass black hole binaries. For most of the cases their intrinsic energy spectra are well…
We present the results of the first broadband X-ray analysis of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5055 ULX X-1, combining simultaneous data from XMM$-$Newton and NuSTAR missions, with a combined exposure time of $\sim$100 ks across the…
Optical studies of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) in nearby galaxies have turned out to be instrumental in discriminating between various models including the much advertised intermediate mass black hole hypothesis and various beaming…
Most ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) display a typical set of properties not seen in Galactic stellar-mass black holes (BHs): higher luminosity Lx > 3 10^39 erg/s, unusually soft X-ray components (kT < 0.3 keV) and a characteristic…
We have studied a highly variable ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in the Fornax galaxy NGC 1365, with a series of 12 Chandra and XMM-Newton observations between 2002 and 2006. In 2006 April, the source peaked at a luminosity ~ 3 x 10^{40}…
Quasi-periodic oscillations and X-ray spectroscopy are powerful probes of black hole masses and accretion disks, and here we apply these diagnostics to an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in the spiral galaxy NGC628 (M74). This object was…
Ultra-luminous X-Ray sources are extra-nuclear point sources in external galaxies with $L_X=10^{39}$--$10^{41}$ erg/s and are among the most poorly understood X-ray sources. To help understand their nature, we are trying to identify their…
Majority of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are believed to be super-Eddington objects, providing a nearby prototype for studying an accretion in super-critical regime. In this work, we present the study of time-lag spectra of the ULX…
Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources are accreting black holes that might represent strong evidence of the Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBH), proposed to exist by theoretical studies but with no firm detection (as a class) so far. We analyze the…
We report results from long-term (approximately 1240 days) X-ray (0.3-8.0 keV) monitoring of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5408 X-1 with the Swift/X-Ray Telescope. Here we expand on earlier work by Strohmayer (2009) who used only a…